Well, just have time and energy for a short post tonight…if I try really hard maybe I can actually keep it short!

The weather has been pretty typical for April in this neck of the woods: a mix of sun and rain, and temps pretty steady in the mid 50’s (12-13 C) although one day when the sun was out it got up to nearly 70! (21 C) They say it’s supposed to get cooler this weekend and possibly snow…but y’all know the weather service….

There are more and more signs of spring all the time. The crocuses (spring flowers–not sure if that’s the proper spelling) are finally blooming, and the daffodils are growing quite a bit too–no flowers yet though. Also the ‘spring peepers’ (little frogs that have really big voices!) have been singing away merrily for a week or so, probably once the water in the swamps warmed up.

The chicks are still doing fine and growing to beat the band…hard to believe they’re only 2 1/2 weeks old. Most of them now have all their little wing feathers and quite a start on their tails. Fluttering to the top of the brooder no longer poses any problem–I’m glad I got the chicken wire on when I did!

The tomatoes are flourishing upstairs…I’ve had to raise the lights several times the past week. I could probably move them out to the hoop-house, only it’s not dug up. And before I can dig it up I have to move the chicks out. And before I can move the chicks out it has to warm up enough….So for now the plants are still upstairs. The lettuce is also doing well. I actually planted some leaf lettuce and radishes out side last Saturday–pretty exciting ;-) I should get another picture of the rhubarb, its really taking off.

And finally, you may have noticed that we have different music at different times….That’s because Jonathan made some random number generator that picks what music player comes up–so if you don’t like the music just refresh the page and it will probably be different. (although I can never seem to get the one that has the bluegrass music that I like pretty well) He also found some new songs to put on the one player….the one song entitled “city on a hill” (or something like that) has pretty good lyrics but I wish it was something different that a “City!” Make me a lamp on a stand, or maybe a barn on a hill, but I think that the agrarian consensus is that cities are the antithesis of the ideal lifestyle. Oh, well quite good other than that. He also found some other neat ones…. so come by and take a listen…

It was a cold, gray, windy day. Quite a nip in the air. And boy, was it windy. Really, really windy. Like 40 or 50 mile an hour gusts windy. (you get the idea?)

Well this morning I awakened to my dear Mother telling me that the plastic was loose on the hoop-house. (for the umpteenth, no gazillionth, time) Did I mention that the chicks are out there?!? And did I say that there is (or rather used to be) probably half a ton of rocks holding the plastic down?!? And did I tell y’all that it was rather windy?!? It was almost a disaster. Thankfully, the chicks didn’t seem to suffer too much under their brooder in the hoop-coop (which is inside of the hoop-house) PTL!!) So I dashed out there (after throwing on some clothes and dragging myself out of bed (Umm, better reverse the order on that :-) ) –I did mention that somehow I stayed up till mid-night last night? And this was shortly after seven?–I dashed out and assessed the damage. A lot of damage. Almost enough to collect the wind damage insurance we don’t have on the thing.

Well, it was way too windy to do much other than pull down the first layer of plastic and batten it down as well as we could and go back in and wait. And did I mention that it was quite cloudy and depressing? (and very windy!) And that the weather last night called for Sun to day?? Anyway, not the best start to the day! This afternoon the wind finally died down to a gentle breeze of about 15 or 20 mile an hour gusts, and Jonathan helped me get the second layer of plastic back over the hoops (several of which are now displaced and/or broken) and weighted down with about six or eight 150+ pound blocks of wood per side. (those hard maple blocks that I didn’t get split yet sure came in handy to day) So now we have the blocks of wood and all of the rocks we started with on there. Now I think (hope/pray) that anything shy of a tornado can’t do much more damage. We definitely need some design improvements–more metal to start! (we don’t have any in the current flawed design)

(With all of these *great* things happening to our version of a hoop-house, y’all probably can’t wait ’till I tell y’all how to make your own! It would work great someplace that never gets over a 2mph breeze. Seriously though, maybe you can learn with us from our mistakes, and not make as many yourself! When the plastic stays on it seems to work well–our rhubarb has leaves about 5 or 6 inches across and the really greening up. )

The chicks are doing well (getting quite big, and growing lots of feathers), I really do want to get some pictures posted of them out–they’re really a riot. Our new entertainment is to dig up a few worms and dangle them by the brooder ’till one of the chicks grabs it and runs off. Then all the rest will chase after the one with the worm. Kinda like football or something. It’s really great if you get about 6 or 8 chicks with worms and the others chasing. In and out of the brooder, into the corners, (there are a few that are really good at stealing the “ball,”) and ever out of the coop into the general hoop-house! Maybe I can even figure out (read get Jonathan to figure out) how to post a video of them–no promises though. I just ordered a batch of meat birds too, should arrive May 19th. Now I need to think about getting more feed…

Tonight, after supper, Dad went out to watch the show. And then we played Frisbee (using ice cream pail covers) with the dog. Kinda hard in gale force wind. It was just like a day in late October or early November. Felt just about like time for deer season ;-)